People always say, 'Oh, I'd love to work with my sibling,' or 'My God, I could never work with my sibling.' It was just a natural process for us. We started collaborating on our first films and it evolved. We have a passion for film that we shared as we were growing up.
Everything's always got to be character-based. We know we can't, if we're sitting in the editing room, watch the sequence for more than 20 seconds without a character having a point of view or moving the action forward; my brain just shuts down, or I start thinking about my laundry.
We're always looking for ways to use technologies to open up new creative expressions for us artistically. So we're constantly thinking about where something like VR may lead us in storytelling or what kind of tool that gives us as storytellers.
Our experience with Marvel has been amazing, and we really do feel like we're in our creative sweet spot there.
We like films that make you laugh, make you cry, make you think, scare you, whatever.
We like mature storytelling. We like dramatic storytelling. We like intense storytelling.
We don't program movies. We don't run studios. We make movies.
The great thing about Marvel is that there is an attitude of 'nothing's impossible,' but that doesn't mean everything is possible; you just have to chase it.
The one thing Marvel does is think outside the box, going all the way back to Ang Lee directing the first 'Hulk.' They like to go outside the genre.
The thing I always laugh about is we tried for years to make successful television. And at the end of the day, we never had a show run as long as our run at Marvel.
We saw 'Swiss Army Man' and fell in love with the Daniels, who are adventurous filmmakers and radical storytellers, pushing the boundaries.
I don't like to get in front of the camera.
Joe and I always say that our guide through action is always story and character. We're always driving right at the character beats, or else the action beat doesn't work.
What Joe and I love about the film industry, it's like the wild West. We're two guys who grew up a million miles away from the film business; it doesn't matter where you come from or where you go to school. All that matters is, can you find a way to practice the craft and express yourself in a way that people respond to.
In a way, Captain America is the most grounded of the main Marvel superheroes. He is basically just a man, only more so. He doesn't fly across the sky like Iron Man. He isn't from another world like Thor. He doesn't turn into a green monster.
Among directing teams, you find a high percentage of brothers. You need the ability to compromise. With siblings, you've grown up with a pattern that, yeah, every once in a while you have to give in for the greater good, for the family collective.
Joe and I have always been drawn to ensemble storytelling. We like the idea of telling stories from multiple characters' points of view and thinking about the story from multiple characters' points of view.
We were film geeks. We devoured everything: really obscure art films, foreign films. We were the kind of guys that lived at the Cinematheque. But at the end of the day, your favorite movies are like everybody else's favorite movies. Because those are the movies that become a touch point where you can connect to other people.
It's incumbent upon a director, if you want to pull the best performance out of an actor, you have to really work to who they are and how they work and not just expect them to hit a mark every time. You have to be very adaptable in the approach that you use with every different actor.
There is a worst part, and it is this: we spend more time with each other than we do with our wives and children, and we work very long hours - we work non-stop - so when we need to shut off, we need to be separate, or else we - or else we just slip into our work mode.
